Emirates unprofessional; discrimination against ‘Di Asa’ winner 'unacceptable' – Organisers

The organisers of Accra-based Atinka TV’s plus size women’s reality show ‘Di Asa’ have said that Emirates Airline was unprofessional and discriminatory by refusing the purchase of a double seat for the 2019 winner of the show, Precious Mensah, popularly known as PM, after preventing her from boarding one of its flights to UAE.

The organisers further accused Emirates of demanding exorbitant fees for a first-class seat, and that the airline was “acting in bad faith”, adding: “The issue or our challenge here is not about the money or additional commitment requested by Emirates Airline but we realised that the unfair treatment meted out to our Queen by Emirates Airline did not necessitate any further engagement or commitment under the circumstance”.

PM could not fly to Dubai with the two runners-up of the show because Emirates explained that she was too big for one seat to accommodate her safely and comfortably in accordance with industry requirements.

In a statement released on Thursday, 21 November 2019, the organisers maintained that: “The airline ticketing agent had been duly informed that the tickets were for plus-size passengers (Di Asa Season 3 winners)”.

“We offered to upgrade our Queen’s seat to First Class with our accumulated mileage due to the timing of the information, as AMV (Atinka Media Village) was ready to fly our Queen to Dubai at all cost. Emirates Airline, again, denied us this offer saying we could not use our mileage at that time and still requested us to pay a top-up of almost $10,000, which is equivalent to GHS 57,000 at the last minute for the First Class.

“We saw this as unfair treatment, unprofessional and discrimination against our Queen, particularly when the Airline Ticketing Agent had prior knowledge of who they had issued the tickets to,” the statement added.

Below is the full release: